US govt says 'Lowry was our agent'

A British law professor held by Portuguese authorities for the past two years has been revealed as a US undercover agent, helping to break an international banking fraud ring from his Lisbon prison cell.

The Utah attorney general’s office has taken the unusual step of revealing David Lowry’s work for US law enforcement agencies.

It has also defended the British lawyer’s integrity as he awaits sentence at the end of this week.

Utah Lieutenant Doug Witney says Lowry’s expertise helped his office expose a multimillion dollar offshore banking racket. “The case will be prosecuted successfully in the near future because of Mr Lowry’s assistance,” he says.

Former FBI operative Craig Heesch confirmed the case was “an international banking fraud of large dimensions”, involving the FBI, US Secret Service, Utah Attorney General’s Office and British law enforcement agencies. He confirmed that Lowry has worked for the FBI as well.

Lowry’s legal adviser, Gudrun Parasie, director of European Legal Advice, says: “They’ve asked him for his advice because they couldn’t find any other specialist of his calibre. He’s quite a guy.”

Lowry has spent two years in prison, accused of fraud and forgery after setting up a telemarketing company which sold shares in US corporations.